NAVAL AND MILITARY ADMINISTRATOR 247

aye, even by his enemies, as the greatest man in the
Empire. Thus considered, the moral aspect of his
qualities becomes a matter in which latitude and
longitude are dominant factors.

There is no doubt that amongst his countrymen
the healing hand of Time has effaced the memory
of Li's failures and that contemporary opinion in
China (which., be it remembered, is largely an official
product) now pays him reverence. As the bureau-
cracy sees it, his career was a model of almost un-
broken success, achieved on strictly classical lines,
with interesting diversions into exotic byways oŁ
modernism. In any other land but China, Li's
handling of the navy would have been a sore subject,,
from the discussion of which discreet politicians
would abstain ; not so with Li's friends and followers
in Peking to-day. Only a year ago a solemn proposal
%vas made to the late President Yuan Shih-Fai, in a
Memorial by the Ministry of the Navy, asking that a
special temple should be erected in Peking to the
memory of Li Hung-chang, Tso Tsung-tang, and
Shen Pao-chen, the founders of the Chinese navy,
" so that naval officers and men might pay homage
to the spirit of these statesmen." The Memorial,
as is usual in such cases, gives an historical account
of the growth of the Chinese navy? from which the
uninitiated might conclude that its career has been
an enduring and brilliant success even unto to-day*

a In the darkest and most conservative time of
the late Ching dynasty " (it says) " Tso Tsung-tang
foresaw the necessity of coast defence ; he built the
Foochow arsenal and recommended Shen Pao-chen
to be the Director-General there. Shen organised
an arsenal school and built eight gunboats, which